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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsAsk WoW Insider: When does an alt become a main?
by Barb Dybwad 
Apr 20th 2007 at 2:50PM
It's time once again for the weekly edition of Ask WoW Insider, wherein we publish a reader question for everyone to answer. This week brings us an esoteric conundrum from Matthew: I started WoW about 5 months ago and played an Orc Warrior up to lvl 49. When the expansion came out, I started a BE mage and I absolutely love it. However, I have just surpassed my main in level. So now I have a lvl 50 BE mage alt and I don't see myself leveling my warrior for quite awhile. My question is: Is my lvl 49 Orc Warrior still my main if it was overtaken by my lvl 50 Blood Elf Mage alt?So -- when does an alt become a main, and vice versa?
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Filed under: WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves, Ask WoW Insider, Alts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
FireStar Apr 20th 2007 5:20PM
@13 absolutely wins...here i was going to say i have 6 mains because im a soloer and i play them all and i love them all for their own reasons. But, when thinking of deleting all but one i can't delete my 67 priest.
Guernia Apr 20th 2007 6:03PM
According to some people, you main is the one your guildleader makes you bring to the party or raid.
Of course, both myself and my fellow officer said "screw it" and rerolled at TBC and refused to play our previous mains, so our guild leader had no choice to accept.
But conventional wisdom would dictate your main is the one you're putting most effort into, or play for the largest fraction of time. If that's the case, I've had three different main characters during my time on my current server.
#13 has a good point, but there's no way I could choose between my hunter, priest or paladin. I'd consider those to be my "mains", with 5 others as alts (and 2 banks!). But if I can get at least one of each of the 6 attractive classes up to max level, I'll be happy. (Hunter, Paladin, Priest, Warlock, Mage, Rogue, if you're interested.)
JJ Apr 20th 2007 9:05PM
Heh, I found that at any given time I can simply ask myself 'who do I feel I AM at the moment?', or 'which character's development am I most interested in?'
I have several different characters (I'm edging in on being an alt-aholic), but I find that I really can't handle playing several characters equally--I always end up picking one for awhile, and then after a few weeks, I get a little bored/tired/frustrated, whatever, and I go back to another one (note: not necessarily CREATE another one, just go to a different alt). It actually feels kinda wierd: one week I'm all gung-ho about my Draenei hunter getting to 40, and then at 37 I pull out my Orc rogue for a few minutes, a few minutes more, and then what-do-you-know, I've totally forgotten my Draenei. So, I've always got *a* main, it just changes frequently, and I never have more than one at a time.
Hm, so what is it that drives a character switch? For me, it's certainly not driven by reaching particular goals (i.e. hitting 40 or 60, getting a mount, whatever). Instead, there are factors like hitting the stranglethorn grind while I have a bright shiny lvl 10 alt in a starting area I haven't explored before. Or perhaps my character on a PvP server got ganked one too many times and I want a break. Or maybe I'm just feeling a little goth this morning and that undead mage starts looking far more fun than she did yesterday, lol.
Yippster Apr 21st 2007 1:52PM
Nope... 13 still wins.
Dibbes Apr 23rd 2007 1:55PM
My main is al lvl 56 Druid, my alt is a lvl 70 Hunter. :D
Unregistered Apr 23rd 2007 4:47AM
i have multiple mains, i dont believe in having super gear so that dont make sense to me. since i have multiple mains, i have enough toons to go around and make stuff for every one of my mains and alts so bags arent it either. equipment goes to whoever is most suited for it.
so my main for me is the one with the name i spent the most time thinking for. and that main is still just level 47. while i have another main at 69.